“My association with Scotland’s last salmon net fishermen stretches back almost 20 years, to a time when the industry was just that – a means of commercially exploiting Scotland’s stock of wild Atlantic salmon. Now it is a niche fishery, one that employs few and appears to be slowly fading away, despite the determination of a band of fishermen who see their traditional way of life as being important to the economic and cultural fabric of rural Scotland. Having watched the men at work over many years I know their determination in the face of adversity – be that environmental or financial – is great. My motivation has always been to document their struggle; to leave a photographic legacy which will stimulate and inform future generations, interested in seeing how the fisherfolk on Scotland’s long and rugged coastline sought to harvest the ‘King of Fish’.”
– Colin McPherson.
Salmon netter Bob Ritchie lifts a salmon through the pocket of a ‘jumper’ net at low tide on the sands at Kinnaber, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
A team of salmon netters battle against the incoming tide as they secure poles with ropes on the foreshore during construction of the fly net on the rocks at Boddin, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
Veteran salmon netter David Pullar, working with his tractor at Lunan Bay, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
Salmon netters pulling their nets ashore while fishing by sweep netting using a coble (boat) on the river North Esk, Kinnaber, Angus at sunset.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
‘Jumper’ nets used for catching salmon on the coast being dried in preparation to be stored away for the winter at the end of the season at Kinnaber, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
Salmon netter Dave Pullar pictured standing at one of his bag nets drying at his netting station of Fishtown of Usan, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
Salmon netter Jim Mitchell struggles to right a pole of a capsized ‘jumper’ net in waters off Kinnaber, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
A wild Atlantic salmon caught in a poke net, staked out on the sands of the Solway, in the south-west of Scotland.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.
Salmon netters Bob Ritchie (left) and Jim Mitchell head home along the sands after fishing ‘jumper’ nets at low tide at Kinnaber, Angus.
Photograph © Colin McPherson, 2012, all rights reserved.